One advantage to ‘being’ Fluttershy, Twilight realised as she approached the pegasus’ house, was that she got to live in one of the most relaxing places in Ponyville. She had barely crossed the bridge when a small, rainbow coloured flock of birds flapped around her, tweeting. She flinched from their sudden appearance, but then realised they were welcoming her home.
Holding out her right foreleg, she smiled as three birds alighted on it.
“Hello, friends. Did you miss me?” she asked.
One of them began chirping, and Twilight was surprised to discover that she knew what he was saying. Apparently, they were worried about her when she didn’t come home last night.
“I can understand you!” she said in awe.
The feathered creatures looked at each other in confusion, their heads turning at a speed only birds could manage.
“...I can understand you would be worried about me, is what I meant to say.”
With a gentle flick of her leg, she indicated to the birds to lift off. Twilight watched them flutter back to the many birdhouses nearby and then continued up the path to her own home. At least, the house that would be her home temporarily.
Upon entering the cosy little cottage, she immediately found herself meeting the eyes of a small white rabbit, who had apparently been waiting by the door. He scowled up at her, tapping his large foot.
“Hello, Angel,” said Twilight.
Still scowling, he pointed at the clock. The pegasus looked at the clock and then back at him, “Sorry. I know I’m home late. Are you angry?”
He shook his head, then placed a paw over his stomach.
“Oh no, are you hurt?” asked Twilight.
Still holding his belly, the rabbit fell onto his back.
“Sick?”
Angel sat up and glared at her. He opened his mouth and pointed at it.
“Oh, you’re hungry!”
The bunny raised his arms and rolled his eyes.
(Finally!)
“Okay, let’s see what we’ve got for you,” said Twilight, walking towards the kitchen. After searching through the cupboards, she eventually found some fresh carrots next to a head of lettuce. Taking a carrot in her mouth, she carried it over to Angel and dropped it in front of him.
“There you go.”
The bunny glanced down at the orange vegetable, then back up to Twilight.
“Do you want another one?” she asked, and brought another carrot over to him.
Angel crossed his arms and turned his head away.
“Fine... have some lettuce, too,” she said and went back to the cupboard. She hurried over to him with a few leaves, beginning to get a little annoyed. Then Angel turned his back on her.
The pegasus scowled, “Angel!” she said, firmly.
He turned around at the strict tone in her voice. Seeing the hard, stern expression on the pony’s otherwise gentle face, he grabbed a carrot and began to quickly eat it.
“Glad we’ve got that settled,” Twilight said with a nod and turned to attend to the other animals.
“Okay, back a bit,” said Spike, helping Fluttershy with her levitation, “Back a bit more and... stop! Now down. Gently. We don’t wanna break anything.”
Biting her lip in concentration, the unicorn slowly lowered her subject until it made contact with the floor.
“Great job, Fluttershy!” said Spike, “You floated me a really good distance!”
“Only about the length of two ponies,” she replied, shrugging.
“Hey, look at it this way — yesterday, you couldn’t even make something float half the length of a pony. Or at all, actually.”
“Yes, but... I don’t know if I’ll ever get good enough to cast that swap spell.”
“Sure you will! It’ll just take time. And don’t worry, you’ve got me and Twilight to back you up.”
Fluttershy looked at him, “You really think I can do it?”
“Yeah, if you put your mind to it. And even if you can’t, there’s always Pinkie Pie. But hey, that’s no excuse for you not to try.”
She nodded, “You’re right. I... I have to do this! My friends are depending on me! I can’t let them down!”
“That’s the spirit! Come on, try levitation on me again. This time, let’s go for the length of three ponies!”
Twilight felt exhausted as she rushed over to a small group of animals, carrying a bowl of seeds.
“Here you go, some lovely seeds,” she said breathlessly, then realised her mistake as the squirrels and chipmunks cocked their heads at the bowl, “Oh wait, the birds weren’t here. Where were they?”
The feathered creatures tweeted behind her. She picked up the bowl and deposited in front of them.
“So, what was it you wanted again?” she asked the squirrels.
They answered in their own squeaky language, which the pegasus understood as, “Nuts. Acorns.”
“Oh! Right!” she said and dashed off to the kitchen to collect some.
I don’t know how Fluttershy does it. All of these animals to take care of at once? And I still have that duck family outside to lead to the pond...
“Okay, anyone else?” she asked after giving the critters their food.
.
“There. Done,” said Fluttershy, setting Spike down with her magic again, “I don’t know why you’re harder to move than the books, though.”
“Well, I do have some weight on me, heh,” said Spike, patting his stomach.
“But I’m lifting you with magic.”
“I dunno. Maybe there’s a limit to how much you can lift. But you’re doing good.”
“I need to do better than good. Ponies who see me will think I’m really Twilight. And she doesn’t want anypony to know what’s happened. I need to try and be great at magic!”
“Hey, easy there, Fluttershy. Twilight said not to rush.”
“I know. I just don’t want to let her down.”
“You won’t, will you?”
“I hope not...” mumbled Fluttershy.
“You mean, ‘No, I won’t let her down!’ right? Let me hear you say it!”
“I won’t let her down...”
“Again. Louder.”
“I won’t let her down!”
“Right! Like I said, you can do this!” said the dragon, giving her a thumbs up.
“Yes! I can! Alright, Spike: get me some books! Uh, please...”
“Okay, Mrs. Duck, this way to the lake,” said Twilight, walking backwards past the marketplace with a mother duck and her five ducklings following her, “That’s it, there’s no need to rush, oof!”
The pegasus stumbled when her backside bumped into another pony.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” apologised Twilight, turning to the dark green unicorn, “Are you okay?”
“Yes, fine,” she replied, rubbing her foreleg.
“Sorry. Come on, duckies, let’s go around everypony.”
The yellow pegasus continued walking backwards, occasionally checking behind her. After looking behind her for the third time, Twilight noticed the group of ducks seemed smaller. Then she saw one of the ducklings was waddling away.
“Oh no! Little ducky! Don’t go on your own!” she cried and ran after it. She picked up the feathered animal and turned to see the mother duck chasing after two other ducklings into the marketplace, her two remaining children waddling after her.
“Oh dear...”
Gently tucking the duckling she was holding under one of her wings, Twilight galloped after the quacking creatures. Dodging and weaving around the ponies at the busy marketplace, she eventually managed to scoop up the small escapees and reunite them with their mother.
“Alright, come on,” she said, quickly leading the birds, “Let’s just get out of here and go to the la— aah!”
In her haste to escort the ducks out of everypony’s way, she tripped over her own hooves and collided with a fruit stand, knocking it over and scattering fruit everywhere. In the confusion, the mother duck frantically lead her ducklings away from the noise... and Twilight.
The pegasus made to go after them, but something caught her tail and she fell flat. She looked over her shoulder at the burly brown earth pony who had a hoof on her pink tail.
“Uh, excuse me, sir. You’re standing on my tail...” she said, getting up.
“Yeah. I know.”
“Well, could you get off, please? I need to go get those ducks.”
“You broke my stand! And what about my fruit?”
“I’ll pay for it, just let me get the ducks first.”
“How do I know you won’t just run away?”
“I won’t! I promise! I’ll leave the ducks with you while I get you your money, if it’ll make you feel better.”
“I’m not an animal watcher.”
“Please! They’re getting away!” said Twilight, looking at him with large, pleading eyes.
The brown pony grimaced, then took his hoof off, “Alright, alright. Bring your ducks here. But you’d better not try anything funny.”
“Thank you!”
Twilight took off into the air and scanned the area. She spotted the ducks not too far off, slowly waddling alongside some bushes. She glided towards the birds and gently set herself down next to them.
“Please don’t run away like that again.”
The mother duck quacked in response.
“I understand you were scared, but it was just some fruit falling down... that I have to pay for, now...” she quietly added to herself, “Listen... I’m going to have to leave you with somepony else, just for a short while. Then I’ll take you right to the lake.”
The duck quacked loudly.
“Yes, I know you want to get there as soon as possible, but I... um... I have pony stuff to take care of first. I won’t be long.”
Quack.
Twilight sighed in relief, “Thank you,” she said and led them over to the brown pony who, with some help, was collecting together his fruit and putting in boxes.
“Now you just wait here with this nice, patient, understanding pony, and I’ll be right back.”
As the ducks gathered around the brown colt, who stood awkwardly with the crowd of animals, Twilight beat her wings and took off.
There’s no way I’m going to pay with Fluttershy’s money... she thought.
She swivelled her head left and right, searching for the library. Upon spotting it, she made straight for the large tree, remembering to keep her body level to avoid drifting off to one side.
Fluttershy sat at a table with a quill in her mouth. She had a sheet of paper rolled out in front of her and was writing down notes to herself about using magic, such as Don’t completely focus on something else when using levitation and Try not to have something weighing on your mind.
“Why don’t you try using magic to write, Fluttershy?” asked Spike.
“Oh, I don’t think I can do that, yet,” she replied, taking the quill out of her mouth with her magic.
“Just try it,” said the dragon, placing down a blank piece of paper next to her.
The unicorn’s mouth twisted in uncertainty. She looked at Spike, who gave an encouraging smile and nod.
“...Okay. I’ll try,” she said.
She wrote down her own name and then sighed at the scrawl that resembled writing.
“Keep going,” said Spike, “Try writing down the names of your friends, too.”
More disproportionately-sized letters flowed from Fluttershy’s quill. Loops were either too big or too small, lines that were supposed to be straight were wobbly and slanted, the crossbars of Ts rarely connected with the body, and the dots of Is were off-centre.
“Horrible,” she mumbled, shaking her head.
Peeking over the unicorn’s shoulder, Spike grimaced at the scribbled lines.
“Uh... good for a first try,” he said, trying to keep Fluttershy’s spirits up, although he had seen Twilight’s first attempts, and they were far more legible.
The unicorn had just taken the quill in her mouth again when the front door swung open to reveal an out of breath yellow pegasus.
“Twilight?” said Fluttershy, “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve got everything under control. Calm down,” said Spike.
“No, no, it’s not that,” explained Twilight, breathlessly, “I just need to find... my coin bag.”
“...I’ve got money at my own house,” said Fluttershy, “If you need to buy more food for the animals with it, go ahead.”
“Yeah, uh, about the animals...”
While searching around for her coin bag, Twilight quickly explained what had happened with the ducks.
“They’re with a stranger?” asked the unicorn, her voice rising slightly.
“Ah! Found it!” said the pegasus, pulling the bag out of a desk drawer, “Yeah, but don’t worry! I’ll fix everything! Gotta go!”
Literally flying through the doorway, Twilight left the pegasus and dragon staring after her.
“Twilight broke something... with my body?” said Fluttershy quietly as Spike walked over to the door and closed it.
“It’s fine. She said she’ll take care of it,” said Spike, reassuringly.
“Yes, but... everypony will think it was me. What if... what if when I get my body back and I go there, they all stare at me and say things about me?”
“Look, I’m sure by the time everypony’s back to normal, they’ll have forgotten about it.”
“...I hope they will...” mumbled the unicorn, drawing circles on the floor with her hoof.